James Hormel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| James Catherwood Hormel | |
 |
|
|
|
|
| In office June 29, 1999 – 2001 |
|
| President | Bill Clinton |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Clay Constantinou |
| Succeeded by | Gerald J. Loftus Chargé d'Affairs ad interim |
|
|
|
| Born | January 1, 1933 Austin, Minnesota |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Profession | Philanthropist |
James Catherwood Hormel (born January 1, 1933 in Austin, Minnesota) is a philanthropist and grandson of George A. Hormel, founder of Hormel Foods (producers of SPAM and other meat products). He lives in San Francisco.
Hormel earned a B.A. in history (1955) from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania and a law degree (1958) from the University of Chicago Law School where he later served as Dean. He was a member of the 1996 U.S. delegations to the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the boards of directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. He was appointed United States Ambassador to Luxembourg by President Bill Clinton in 1999. When he was appointed through a recess appointment, he became the first openly gay man to represent the United States as an ambassador. His former partner, Timothy Wu, held the Bible on which he swore his oath of office.
The James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library is the gateway to collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area. He participated to numerous events, including a conference organized in 2004 by Amnesty International in the frame of the Geneva Gay Pride.
[edit] Nomination controversy
In 1994 US President Bill Clinton first considered openly gay philanthropist James Hormel for an ambassadorship in Fiji but since Fiji proved to have repressive laws against gay men--a homosexual act being punishable by fourteen years in prison--the nomination was not put forth. Instead Hormel was named to the United States delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1995, and in 1997 he became an alternate delegate for the United States at the United Nations General Assembly. Hormel's appointment to the U. N. General Assembly post was quickly and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, but when Clinton nominated him to be ambassador to Luxembourg in October 1997, a lengthy and rancorous political battle ensued.
Because of Hormel's excellent record, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved his nomination in November 1997 by a vote of sixteen to two, with only conservative Senators Jesse Helms of North Carolina and John Ashcroft of Missouri opposed. Although an estimated 60 of the 100 senators supported the appointment, three Republicans -- James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, and Robert Smith of New Hampshire--launched a vigorous campaign against it. Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi refused to take the necessary steps to bring the matter to a vote. In public remarks Lott called homosexuality a sin and compared it to alcoholism and kleptomania.
Abetted by conservative groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council, the dissenting senators charged that Hormel was pro-pornography and anti-Catholic and would not be accepted in largely Catholic Luxembourg and filibustered to stall the process. In support of the pornography allegation, the senators offered a list compiled by the Traditional Values Coalition of materials in the Hormel collection at the San Francisco Public Library. Hormel had not selected any of the publications in question, many of which were also in the Library of Congress.
Opponents based the charge that Hormel was anti-Catholic on the fact that during an on-camera interview at the 1996 San Francisco (Gay) Pride Parade he laughed when the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence walked by. The Family Research Council distributed video tapes to the entire Senate of the brief incident where it was hard to tell if he was laughing at the Sisters' actions and outfits or one of the jokes by the people interviewing him.
Objections regarding Hormel's possible reception in Luxembourg were blunted when officials of the country, which has laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, indicated that he would be welcome. Even staunchly conservative Senator Alphonse D'Amato of New York found the blatantly homophobic obstruction of the nomination an embarrassment and urged that Trent Lott bring the issue up for a vote. Since Lott continued to stall, Clinton used the process of "recess appointment" to name Hormel ambassador in May 1999. Inhofe expressed outrage at the tactic--which was completely legal and had been used with far greater frequency by Clinton's Republican predecessors Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush -- and vowed to block all 149 of Clinton's pending appointees in retaliation. Lott agreed, although both eventually relented. Hormel was sworn in as ambassador on June 29, 1999 with ex-partner Timothy Wu holding the Bible at the ceremony. Also in attendance were Hormel's former wife, his five children, and several of his thirteen grandchildren.
[edit] References
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Clay Constantinou |
United States Ambassador to Luxembourg 8 September 1999–1 January 2001 |
Succeeded by Gerald J. Loftus Chargé d'Affairs ad interim |
